Take an early look at the new Perry Mason coming in 2020
The new reboot brings the character back to his Great Depression origins.
Raymond Burr will be forever associated with the role of Perry Mason, but he was the eighth actor to play the ace attorney. Burr began playing Perry on television in 1957; the character dates back to 1933. In between, the cases of the criminal defense lawyer entertained Americans on the big screen (beginning with Warren William in The Case of the Howling Dog) and on the radio (beginning with Bartlett Robinson in 1943).
Now, a new performer has joined the pantheon of Perry Mason portrayers. Matthew Rhys, the two-time Golden Globe winner for The Americans and the recent star of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, is slipping into the suit to play the Erle Stanley Gardner character.
HBO will air a limited series, once again simply titled Perry Mason, in 2020. To put a fresh spin on the character, the plot reads more like an origin story set in 1931 Los Angeles. The central crime of the tale concerns a child kidnapping.
John Lithgow, Tatiana Maslany, Stephen Root and Lili Taylor also costar.
In the first advance look released in November, Rhys sports more of a Columbo look with a tan raincoat. The vintage automobile in the background reinforced the Great Depression setting.
Last night, before the season finale of Watchmen, HBO aired a network preview for 2020 which included a few brief snippets of footage.
You can watch it below. HBO has yet to announce a specific release date for the reboot.
20 Comments
HBO is doing a Philip Marlowe knockoff and tagging the Mason name to it.
This never works.
It won't work now.
(dislikes titling of the "series" due to a certain other "series" (or TV program) having had been titled the same way)